Impavid

fearless; undaunted

This is a one-shot based on a prompt from sapphireswimming's Apricity. Look that story up for more information. Enjoy.

Paralyze

"Some people are walking around with full use of their bodies and they're more paralyzed than I am."
-Christopher Reeve

No one expected anything bad to ever happen to Tucker Foley. I mean, he was friends with the protector of Amity Park, and Sam Manson for that matter, and he had been on the front lines of every ghost invasion ever set, he had survived Mrs. Fenton's cooking, but he always came out fine. He had a few scrapes and cuts here and there, a few bloody noses at the worst, but he had never been mortally wounded. Danny wouldn't allow it. When Tucker came out the fray, not close to death, but injured beyond repair, everyone was devastated. Most of all the one who had sworn to keep him safe.

Amity Park wasn't a big city, but it was large enough to have its own skyscraper here and there, and it had too many streets for you to walk down in a day. It wasn't huge, not like New York or even Chicago, which wasn't too far away. It had its own homeless community and its own muggers. Some people even thought a mob was forming downtown, but nothing too drastic had ever happened to spark the public's interest for human safety. Well, nothing caused by the humans, that is. So when Tucker was injured on a normal day, when only a couple people were around to see, it was greeted with looks of surprise and horror.

Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley were three of the closet knit groups of friends in the entire town. They had seen and done so many things together, that if they ever broke apart, they couldn't stay that way for long. Fate would have it that these three became best friends. A Goth, an everyday superhero, and a techno geek were not normally thought to hang out together, but they had defied the odds. They had been best friends since 1st grade, when Sam first came to school, and she spilled her grape juice on Danny's lap and Tucker had rushed to the rescue. She had apologized so many times that young Danny just smiled and told her it was alright and she could just let it go. She had run away from the scene, her black pigtails bobbing. Tucker mentioned that he thought she was cute. Some thought it was the origin story of Tucker's flirtatiousness.

They liked to spend their free time at the Nasty Burger, the local teenager hangout. It sold flat coke, greasy fries, and burgers with way too much ketchup, but it still got the most business than any operation around. That could be attributed to the fact that it was barely five blocks away from the high school, Casper High, and children did not want to walk far after school just to chow down.

They left around five, like they did every day, not wanting to deal with the dinner crowd. They walked the same way to Danny's house every day. Through a couple alleys, down some streets and voila!, the huge neon FentonWorks sign was welcoming you in to the funhouse. But today was different. Not different in any foreseeable way, but the trio would come to know of its difference shortly.

They were laughing and going on about how Dash had tripped and fallen today during lunch because he stepped in some deliberately placed sloppy Joe, and none of them saw or heard the mugger appear in front of their exit to the alley a few blocks away from Danny's house. When he showed, none of the three were frightened, they knew Danny would protect them. Not all heroes succeed every time, however.

"Gimme all the money in your wallets boys," the mugger demanded, holding a knife out. "And you, little lady; that necklace," he motioned to the choker around Sam's neck with the knife, and her hand flew to her neck. She frowned.

"Uh, no way, cre-"

"Sam. Calm down," Danny ordered with a deadly calm voice. Danny reached down to his pocket with his hand slowly, never taking his eyes off the mugger. Tucker was busy taking his own wallet out, but had to take his PDA out of his pocket first. That would be his mortal folly. As he removed the metallic PDA from his pocket, the mugger thought it to be a weapon of some sort, and fired, leaving his victims in the dust. He was away before anyone could react.

Tucker fell to the ground without a sound.

"Tucker!" Sam cried, and she and Danny knelt down next to him, Danny gripping his hand tightly. Danny's jawline was hard as stone, and Sam was on the verge of tears.

"Calm down guys. It doesn't really hurt," Tucker reassured his friends, but his voice was shaky and it did nothing of the sort. If anything, it made them more uncertain. There was a bullet hole a few inches above his groin, and blood was flowering out from the wound on his mustard-yellow shirt.

"Hey, Tuck," Danny spoke, his voice still calm. "Do I need to fly you to the hospital?" Tucker left hand, the one Danny was not holding, was fidgeting at his side. Tucker didn't seem to notice, but Danny became a little more frantic.

"Tucker?" he asked again. Tucker snapped to attention.

"Oh, I don't think so. But hey, could you help me up? I can't feel my legs," Danny's heart dropped. He looked up to Sam, who's face was red. Her mouth dropped and she began to bawl. How no one noticed this from outside the alley is absolutely insane.

"Oh, Tucker..." Danny moaned.

"What?" he looked up at Danny. His eyes wide and fearful. He looked at Danny with great hope that Danny would tell him that he was going to be alright, that he was not in any real danger. But then Danny would be lying. Danny's eyes glassed over as he changed to his alter-ego. They remained that way as he picked Tucker up. Tucker's legs stayed limp next to Danny's arms.

"Sam," Danny asked. "Please go get my parents and call Mr. and Mrs. Foley," without another word, Danny took off and flew Tucker to the hospital where they could deliver the news:

Tucker would never walk again.